How Can I Market an Event or Product on Linkedin?

This is a great question asked of me regularly by busy people who want to make use of LinkedIn for their business and want to know how they can target their connections with their products, events and services.

I love you guys and your hustle. I too am a passionate business developer so I get what you are seeking to achieve. And fair enough you have heard about the power of LinkedIn and you want to tap into it.

If your presence on LinkedIn up until now can best be described as just being there and not about delivering value to your connections then you won’t love my answer. 

Direct marketing of a product or service to your LinkedIn connections through group emails or posting updates is not advisable, appropriate Linkedin etiquette, or effective.  The key difference about your LinkedIn connections is that they have agreed to be your connection on LinkedIn not to being on your database.

Direct marketing of a product or event via LinkedIn is the online equivalent of going to a big networking event when you haven’t seen a lot of your connections for ages and presenting them with a billboard or flyer for your event or product instead of having a meaningful conversation. Many of your connections will perceive it as spam. How effective would that be as a sales strategy?

So you may well ask…what can I do to grow my business on LinkedIn? Good news here are 10 things you can invest your time in doing to grow your business on LinkedIn.

10 things you can do to grow your business on LinkedIn

1. Optimise your LinkedIn Profile – it must be buyer centric
2. Build a large network of connections made up of your ideal customers
3. Cultivate the relationships, build rapport, and get to know them and their needs
4. Move the relationships offline over time
5. The first 4 steps are one to one and key to an effective social selling strategy
6. Add value by sharing useful updates and your blogs (e.g. about your event) with your connections
7. 80:20 rule – ensure when you share an update that 80% is about adding value and only 20% is about your business (no direct selling please – it turns people off on LinkedIn)
8. Track and measure the engagement on your shared updates
9. Create a Company Profile on LinkedIn to promote your products or services
10. Create a LinkedIn Group to position yourself as a subject matter expert and through nurturing the group you can create opportunities for your business

Here’s my LinkedIn philosophy:

You have to give before you get to create results on LinkedIn.

GIVE BEFORE YOU GET – TO CREATE RESULTS ON LINKEDIN (TWEET IT)

3 key steps to LinkedIn profile optimisation

1. Profile Photo: Get a professional headshot taken for your profile. This is your personal brand and you want to create the best impression online that you can
2. Summary Section: Make sure you add and complete the summary section in your profile
3. Recommendations: These are gold. Ask for recommendations for the great work you do from your clients

If you want to find out more about profile optimisation or want to attend a workshop or webinar to learn how to do this for yourself email me @ kate@forceofnature.co.nz